Race The Passport

I was a bit frantic last Monday when my Aunt called to ask for my sister’s passport number and it turned out that little sister haven’t yet applied for one. My Aunt have to submit her papers within the week or her chance to go abroad will be doomed ’til kingdom come. I know that a rushed passport can be released within two working days but I have no idea on the fastest time it takes to release an NSO birth certificate on security paper.

Good thing Mom knows a thing or two about this matter and so sister went to the provincial capital early in the morning and had her birth certificate released 10am on that same day. She then proceeded to the DFA to apply for her passport and yesterday I fetched it for her.

I have been to DFA twice and both visits have been pleasant enough. The first one was when I applied for mine. Although there were long waiting lines, processing was fast enough and took me around two hours to finish the whole thing. I had it delivered door to door.

Yesterday I arrived around 3:30pm, submitted the receipt, had my ID photocopied, sat down on the waiting area, waited for the name to be called, presented the authorization letter, checked the passport’s details for any mistakes, and voila! I’m done in 30 minutes. The passport specifically states,

My sister is going to Greece anyway.